LONDON (Reuters) - A Qatari man struck down with a
previously unknown virus related to the deadly SARS infection and
the common cold is critically ill in hospital in Britain, the World
Health Organisation said on Monday.
The U.N. health body put out a global alert on Sunday saying a
new virus had infected the 49-year-old man who had recently
travelled to Saudi Arabia - where another man with an almost
identical virus had already died.
Britain's Health Protection Agency (HPA) and respiratory disease
experts said there was no immediate cause for concern, although
authorities were watching out for any signs of the virus
spreading.
"This new virus ... is different from any that have previously
been identified in humans," the HPA said.
Any suggestions of a link between the virus and Saudi Arabia
will cause particular concern in the build-up to next month's
Muslim haj pilgrimage, when millions of people arrive in the
kingdom from across the world, then return to their homes.
The virus, known as a coronavirus, comes from the same family as
SARS which emerged in 2002 and killed 800 people.
"This is now an international issue," WHO spokesman Gregory
Hartl said. "The (Qatari) patient is still alive but, as we
understand, in critical condition," he said.
The HPA said it was recommending the Qatari patient be treated
in isolation by doctors and nurses wearing gowns, gloves
respirators, goggles and other protective equipment.
It did not recommend any specific actions for travellers or
other members of the public.
INTENSIVE CARE
The Qatari man first showed symptoms of an acute respiratory
infection while he was in Qatar, the WHO said.
He spent some time in intensive case in Qatar and was later
flown to the UK where he was currently in a London hospital's
intensive care unit, being treated for acute respiratory infection
and kidney failure. Officials declined to name the hospital.
Andrew Easton, a virologist at Britain's University of Warwick,
said that with only two cases so far, it was difficult for experts
to estimate the potential threat.
"The important thing is to be aware of the virus and to be on
the lookout for any evidence that it is more than a rare chance
event," he said.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that includes causes
of the common cold but can also include more severe illness such as
the virus responsible for SARS.
SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, appeared in China in
2002 and infected more than 8,000 people worldwide, killing around
800 of them before being brought under control.
John Oxford, a professor of Virology at Queen Mary, University
of London, said he was not too concerned as the new virus was "more
likely to join numerous other members of the coronavirus family and
behave like a nasty infection rather than join the exception group
like SARS".
"SARS was very quick off the mark infecting hospital staff," he
said in an emailed comment. "And this new virus does not to me
appear to be in the same 'big bang' group."
The WHO said it was in touch with health authorities in Britain,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Stockholm-based European Centre for
Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)
"We're asking for information from whoever might have seen such
cases, but as of the moment we haven't had any more notifications
of cases," said Hartl.
The HPA said it had conducted lab testing on Qatari case and
found a 99.5 percent match to a virus that killed a 60-year-old
Saudi national earlier this year. The Saudi man's virus was not
identified as a new kind of infection at the time of his death.
There was no evidence of ongoing transmission, said the head of
the HPA's respiratory diseases department, John Watson.
"In the light of the severity of the illness that has been
identified in the two confirmed cases, immediate steps have been
taken to ensure that people who have been in contact with the UK
case have not been infected, and there is no evidence to suggest
they have," he said. (Additional reporting by Angus McDowall in
Riyadh; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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I am not feeling well today